Leadership Development And Strengthening - More Reference Sources! More Points Of View!

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"Leadership, at its heart, will always be about achieving an agreed-upon objective through the efficient use of the available resources allotted to the undertaking. Some of these resources are Human Assets, and some are not. If you do not accomplish the goal given you within the parameters specified and using the resources allotted, you will not be called 'leader' for very long." - Douglas E. Castle

Something NEW!

My purpose in writing this blog is to provide readers with my focus, opinion and commentary on certain events, paradigm shifts, important trends, and possible future scenarios -- as well as ways to provide for them, either by positively exploiting them or by exercising the most effective damage control. My writing is for my readers, but it is inadequate in terms of comprehensive coverage on the general categories of subject matter being discussed. I will now offer you much more than ever before. And yes, cousin Frankie, it’s still free.

Henceforth [snobby word, eh?] I'll be posting more article links to this site, as well as whole weekly newspapers or curated collections of articles to this site covering interesting news items gathered from all media to provide every reader with a broader, better view than just my own. While my original articles will continue to be posted, these weekly reviews will lend some needed external perspective to the things that I'm speaking about, and will cover areas where I haven't focused my own attention as an author and an executive. I also feel that views which are not necessarily my own must be given fair representation. My readers are intelligent enough to decide which views are the most sensible, and who they can best believe.

As always, thank you for reading me, and for sharing my articles and other materials with your networks of contacts, colleagues and friends across the ever-increasing variety of social networks through your bookmarking, toolbars and other sharing tools.

A first sampling of this new information follows right beneath my signature and the list of search terms for this article. Please read it, and I hope that you truly enjoy it.

Douglas E. Castle

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Entrepreneurial Business Planning - Tactics Versus Strategies - Optimizing The Blend

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Every Entrepreneur, Project Manager, Leader and Small- to Medium-Sized Business CEO (or other C-Suite dignitary) must understand the difference between tactics and strategies, and learn the way to think about each. Just as importantly, each of us needs to integrate them to achieve real results and to avoid walking a needlessly random path governed by the sway of outside forces. Welcome to Entrepreneurial Business Planning - Tactics Versus Strategies - Optimizing The Blend.

Here's a preliminary explanation of the difference, and an example:

Understand the difference between Tactics and Strategies -- Strategies are the longer- term plans you make for achieving your ultimate goals and objectives, in accordance with your ambitions, desires and inclinations. You have a roadmap or blueprint to either get you there or to create the finished product.

A strategic plan might cover a span of time from several months to an entire lifetime, but its destination is where you ultimately and passionately want to be.

Tactics are short-term initiatives (spontaneous adaptations) for dealing with the impediments, complications and situations which you encounter along the path to achieving your goals and objectives. They often involve palliative measures, adjustments in timing, a slight detour from the map -- but they are merely immediate accommodations, and should never keep your ultimate focus from your goals and objectives.

The simplest analogy is in a situation where you are planning to go to a supermarket, and your ordinary route is blocked off by Police Crime Scene Investigators, a fallen tree, a picket line of anti-government protestors, an oily chemical spill, or an inoperative traffic light; while you will navigate a new route (the tactic), you will still be heading for the supermarket (the strategy to appease your hungry children who are suffering from serious Taco-Bell Gastritis/ Single Dad Syndrome).

Don't ever lose sight of strategy when engaged in a tactical maneuver. Keep your internal compass set on your destination. Occasional rests and positive visualization can be very helpful in getting you safely to your rendezvous without having you fall prey to careless mistakes, or endless, labyrinthine detours.

Blending these two tools is very much like going back and forth, looking into a telescope (strategy, the big picture, a macrocosm), and then looking into a microscope (the incremental steps needed to get there). You must switch back and forth between pragmatic detail and your vision.

Terrible, Gratuitous Metaphor:

If you are climbing a mountain, you must focus on your objective (the peak), while you constantly look down and along side you to avoid tripping on roots or being hit by branches in your path.

This constant refocusing is a necessary leadership skill. It enables you to always know your destination (and how you intend to get there in terms of your mapped path), but to change the incremental steps, as may be necessary to navigate around quicksand, crocodiles, and bandits who may be in the middle of the road.


If you are well-practiced at this, you become a powerfully adept problem-solver -- you will take many a detour, but you'll always wind up back on the main road to your stated objective, and to the successful achievement of your mission. You'll understand, viscerally, that goal attainment requires the ability to shift in and out of perspectives.

Business is inherently the solution of problems. Business is, by its nature, an obstacle course, with a prize at the end. Problems are not aberrations -- they are absolutely to be expected, remedied or circumvented, and then, if you have solved or side-stepped each and every one of them, if you've managed to maintain your most important sense of direction, you'll find yourself at the mountaintop.

Douglas E Castle
Chairman
TNNWC Group, LLC - Management Consultants to Emerging Enterprises 

Tags, Labels, Keywords, Categories and Search Terms For This Article:Business plan, Entrepreneur, Strategy, Project Manager, tactics as detours, staying on track, Douglas E Castle, TNNWC Management Consulting, blogs about leadership, visualization, problem-solving, navigation, negotiation, command, control, communications, alternating perspectives, tenancity, passion in pursuit, formula for achievement, eyes on the prize, macroscopic vision, microscopic vision, achievement by increments, flexibility and innovation

NOTE: This Article Was Published in its Original Form by Douglas E Castle in TAKING COMMAND!. You can find this blog at http://TakingCommand.blogspot.com.

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NOTICE: This article is Copyright © 2011 by author Douglas E Castle with all rights reserved. It may be republished without permission provided that it is published in full, with all hyperlinks and exhibits left intact, and with full attribution given the author. This article does not contain or constitute medical, health, psychological, legal, regulatory, investment, securities, financial, tax, or any other form of professional advice -- the reader acknowledges and accepts this disclaimer. Further, the reader indemnifies and holds harmless both the author and all publications in which this article appears of any damages, claims, loss, responsibility or liability emerging from the reader’s utilization of any information contained herein.

About This Author: Further information regarding this author’s professional experience, expertise and service offerings can be found at ABOUT DOUGLAS E CASTLE

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TOUGH GUYS-TENDER WORDS

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Dear Friends:

KEEP THIS IN MIND:

Part of every employment or professional situation requires that we show the people who work for us, as well as the people who we work for, that we care about them. Failing to do this breeds resentment and indifference. Doing this permits more flexibility, more forgiveness and a greater capacity to accomplish work.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

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